say to the contrary, it ceases not to affect us now. A great idea well expressed, or a deep feeling naturally portrayed, is "a thing of beauty and a joy forever."

CHAPTER XVI.

REALITY.

It was said by Panchand that Mirabeau was the first man in the world to speak upon a question he knew nothing about. But Mirabeau had the confidence which enabled him to abandon himself to the reality of occasions, and he read the lessons they brought with them, while other men went to books; and, as reality is the most powerful teacher, he was wiser than the encyclopediasts.

I believe there are no difficulties in the moral or political world, no problem of events, which do not also bring their solutions with them, were we cool enough to read them; but we never trust ourselves to events; we do not believe what we see, or will not see what is before us. We make preconceived opinions, predetermined judgment, overrule new facts. We too often act the part of the man who is so much in love with his bark that he never ventures to sail in it. This is the course to be taken: scan the truth, and having learned it, trust to subsequent events to illustrate it.

In the premeditation which I have commended I do not mean to exclude extempore application of the faculties. An orator should go to the rostrum to

announce conclusions, not to form them. In this I persist; but having laid the scene, I would leave him free to manage it as he pleased. Let him take advantage of the tide of feeling, temper, and exclamations of the meeting; but unless he is firm in a previous purpose, these things will take advantage of him and carry him away from his subject, instead of his carrying away the audience.

Hic Rhodus; hic salta.* Do not wait for a change of outward circumstances, but take your circumstances as they are, and make the best of them. This saying, which was meant to shame a braggart, will admit of a very different and profounder application. Goethe has changed the postulate of Archimedes, "Give me a standing-place, and I will move the world," into the precept, "Make good thy standingplace, and move the world." This is what he did. throughout his life.†

Abandonment to reality is the source of presence of mind, an indispensable element of oratorical greatness. It is storied that Frederic the Great being informed of the death of one of his chaplains, a man of considerable learning and piety, and determining that his successor should not be behind him in these qualifications, he told a candidate about to preach a trial sermon at the Royal Chapel that he would himself furnish him with a text' from which he was to make an extempore sermon. The clergyman accepted the proposition. The whim of such a probationary discourse was spread abroad, and at an early hour the Royal Chapel was crowded to excess. The king arrived at the end of the prayers, and, on the candidate * "Here is Rhodes; leap here."-Old Fable. Guesses at Truth. By two Brothers.

ascending the pulpit, one of his majesty's aids-decamp presented him with a sealed paper. The preacher opened it, and found nothing written therein. He did not, however, in so critical a moment, lose his presence of mind; but turning the paper on both sides, he said: "My brethren, here is nothing, and there is nothing; out of nothing God created all things;" and he proceeded to deliver an admirable discourse upon the wonders of the creation. This man deserved the appointment.

A good converse story is told in Chambers's Scottish Jest Book, of a minister who had a custom of writing the heads of his discourse on small slips of paper, which he placed on the Bible before him, to be used in succession. One day, when he was explaining the second head, he got a little warm in the harness, and came down with such a thump upon the Bible with his hand that the ensuing slip fell over the edge of the pulpit, though unperceived by himself. On reaching the end of his second head he looked down for the third slip; but, alas! it was not to be found. "Thirdly," he cried, looking round him with great anxiety. After a little pause, "Thirdly," again he exclaimed; but still no thirdly appeared. "Thirdly," I say, my brethren," pursued the bewildered clergyman; but not another word could he utter. At this point, while the congregation were partly sympathizing in his distress, and partly rejoicing in such a decisive instance of the impropriety of using notes in preaching, which has always been an unpopular thing in the Scotch clergy, an old woman rose up and thus addressed the preacher: "If I'm no mista'en, sir, I saw thirdly flee out at the east window a quarter of an hour syne." It is impossible for any but a Scotch

man to conceive how much this account of the loss of thirdly was relished by that part of the congregation which condemned the use of notes.

Before writing or speaking, it is of great service to try the matter over by telling it to a critical friend, or explaining it to some one utterly ignorant of it. By these trials of reality objections may be learned, impediments to conviction be discovered, and simplicity of enunciation acquired. If you have to speak of topics before thus maturing your power over them, supply a relay of telling points, so that when coherency fails you, you can have recourse to a striking "thought. Few will discover its want of relevance. The majority always mistake brilliancy for eloquence. But remember, this expedient will only save you with the vulgar; the well-informed are not thus to be imposed on.

The neglect of the study of reality is, perhaps, nowhere so apparent as in the construction of controversial books. Authors satisfy themselves with inventing the arguments of their opponents, when the easiest and most satisfactory course is to extract the most powerful reasoning the other side has produced. By this course real objectors could be answered instead of imaginary ones. The neglect of this precaution was strikingly manifested in a work published some time ago entitled "Torrington Hall."

CHAPTER XVII.

EFFECTIVENESS.

EFFECTIVENESS lies in proportion. Not in the beauty of a pillar or the finish of a frieze, but in the command which the whole building has over the spectator; and not in the brilliance of a passage, but in the coherence of the whole, lies the effectiveness of a speech or a book.

Foremost in effectiveness stands purpose. Better say nothing than not to the purpose. Nothing should attract the main attention to itself. The chief merit of any part is its subserviency to the whole design. When parts are praised, a speaker is said to have brilliance; when the whole impresses, he is said to have power.

"The editor of Shelley's posthumous poems apologizes for the publication of some fragments in a very incomplete state, by remarking how much more than every other poet of the present day every line and word he wrote is instinct with beauty. Let no man sit down to write with the purpose of making every line and word beautiful and peculiar. The only effect of such an endeavor will be to corrupt his judgment and confound his understanding."*

A few generalities may be mentioned, attention to which will conduce to effectiveness. Avoid rant, study simplicity, abjure affectation, be natural. The natural voice is heard the farthest, and the natural affects the soonest. "The costly charm of the ancient

*Henry Taylor. Preface to Philip Van Artevelde.